West Virginia Democrat. [volume] (Charles Town, W. Va.) 1885-1890, 1887-12-09

ests of his employees in their oppor-
tunities to work or in the dimlnu
ton of their wages. the worker in
manufactures cannot fail to under
stand that while a high tariff is
claimed to be necessary to allow the
payment of remuneratiye wages, yet
it certainly results in very large
increase in the prices of all manu-
features he needs for the use Of his
family. He receives his wages at
the desk of his employer and per-
hays before he reaches home is obli-
ged, in the purchase of an article for
family use, (which article embraces
his own labor to return to his en-
ployer in the payment of the in
crease in the price, which the tariff
permits, the hard earned compensa-
tion of many days of toll.
TARIFF ON WOOL.
The bene6ciaries of protection ask
the farmer to aid in maintaining
the present situation. The farmers
manufacture nothing, and they pay
on all they buy the increased price
which the tariff imposes. The far
mer is told that high duty on for
eign wool will benefit those who have
sheep, because it will increase the
price of wool. But the farmer who
has no sheep is obliged in his pur-
chases of WOODEN goods to pay trib-
ute not only to his fellow farmers
who raise sheep but also to the man
ufacturer who manufactures the
wool into clothing. Not only so,
but sheep owners themselves must
purchase wooden fabrics manufac-
tured from the very wool they sell.
and thus as consumers must return
to the manufacturer large part of
their tariff profit. Let it be remem-
bered that large proportion of the
farmers who own sheep, have only
small flocks, numbering from 20 to
so. If the value of wool be 30 cents,
or less, the tariff-tax is 10 cents q
pound; if its value be greater than
80 cents the tariff is II cents. A
farmer with % sheep may sell, say,
$50 pounds OF wool; then his tariff
profit, at the outside, may be $lS.
Ifupon the sale Of his wool the
farmer receives this tariff profit, the
wool leaves his hands charged with
precisely that sum, which, in all its
changes, will adhere to it, until it
reaches the consumer. When man
ufactured into goods, its cost is not
only increased to the extent of the
farmers tariff profit, but further
sum has been added for the benefit
of the manufacturer under the ope-
ration of other tariff laws. In the
meantime the day arrives when the
farmer buys wooden fabrics. When
he faces the craftsman for that pur-
pose he discovers that he is obliged,
not only to return in the way of in
creased prices his tariff profit on
the wool he sold, land which wool
perhaps lies before him in manufac-
tured form, but that he must add a
considerable sum thereto to meet a
further increase in cost caused by a
tariff duty on the manufacture.
Thus in the end the farmer is arous-
ed to the fact that he has paid upon
a moderate purchase, as result of
the tariff scheme, (Which scheme
when he sold his wool seemed so
profitable, an increase in the price
of wooden goods more than sufficient
to sweep away all the tariff profit on
his % sheep.
When the number of farmers en-.
gagged in wool raising is compared
with the number not raising sheep;
when the number Of sheep owners is
compared with the number of per-
sons in other employments; when it
is made apparent that, in the case
of a large part of those who own
sheep, the benefit of the present tar
if on wool is illusory. and above all,
when it must be conceded that the
increase in the cost of living caused
by such tariff becomes burden
upon those of moderate means, the
employed and the unemployed, the
sick and well, the young and old,
and that it constitute a tax which,
with relentless grasp, is fastened mp
on the clothing of every man, wo-
man and child, it seems palpable
duty to reduce the tax on wool.
COMPETITION sTRANGLED BY CoNBINA-
| do not overlook the fact that
competition between our protected
home manufacturers sometimes has
the effect of reducing the price Of
their products below the highest
limit allowed by the tariff tax. But
it is notorious that this competition
is too often strangled by combina-
tions which have for their object the
regulation of the supply and price
of commodities made and sold by
members of the combination. The
people can hardly hope for any con-
sideration in the operation of these
combinations to strangle competi-
ton.
The necessity denominations and
pools to maintain prices, furnishes
proof that some one is willing to ac-